Technically, springtime begins tomorrow, and the Downtown Merchants are celebrating this beautiful season Saturday, March 29 with open houses 10 am - 5 pm. Help them celebrate and Bring in Spring to Sumner.

Mayor's Update: The "Art" of Caring

Chaplain Sphar gave his final invocation on March 3. The Mayor and Council will recognize his service on April 21.

On Sunday, I attended a reception for retiring Police Chaplain Art Sphar. He's tried this retirement thing a couple of times, so we'll see if this one sticks. Not too many people realize the incredible role that chaplains play. It's much more than giving the invocation at Council meetings.

Years ago, Chief Ron Hyland asked Art to help out. He had no budget and no precedence, and probably neither of them knew what an important program they were creating for Sumner. Chaplains are so vital to helping our citizens and our officers. They come out in the middle of the night to sit with a mother who just learned her child was killed. They help call family members to gently break the news that someone they love has been seriously hurt. They listen to kids who are upset when a fellow student or teacher passes away. They are even a resource to officers who have to work in crime scenes where horrible things have happened. The Chaplains support both the victims of crime and the officers themselves as they deal with the things that few of us, thankfully, understand or even want to know.

Art, a Sumner resident, is a Master Certified Chaplain with the International Conference of Police Chaplains and has received numerous awards for his involvement in the organization, including the Ed Stelle award, the highest award given to a Police Chaplain. He deserves a long overdue retirement, and we hope to see him around town in a more relaxed role. The City will formally thank Art at our April 21 City Council meeting. In the meantime, if you see Art, be sure to thank him and wish him well.

Everywhere around town, lawn mowers are firing up and buds are shooting out. It's nearly spring! Which brings up the age-old mystery of when to fertlize what. The City offers a handy poster to help remind you when to fertilize which kinds of plants. By fertilizing smart, you avoid wasting fertilizer, which then washes into our rivers and pollutes them.